Creation Myths and Interesting Patterns

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Hello, all-

I thought I'd follow up to my own post. Personally, I see some common themes in many creation/origin myths including those in Genesis.

1. Of course, the theme of a creator or group of creators. The assumption of a higher-than-human spiritual being with powers of creation.
2. Generally, humans are created last of all the living and non-living elements of earth. Frequently, creation myths have an evolutionary trend in which animals or other elements later become human and then eventually the humans and animals cannot communicate through speech any longer.
3. Many myths feature clay, dust, or earth as the foundational substance from which humans are created.
4. Many myths feature a great flood or, less commonly, another great catastrophic event, in which much of the earth is destroyed and very few humans survive.
5. Humans are generally portrayed as functioning as stewards of the earth and responsible for being respectful in their use of the other elements of creation.
6. Many myths posit multiple creation events that didn't work out for some reason and were destroyed somehow- the concept of separate ages of the earth.

Just a few observations. I particularly find references to flooding interesting, though I do not as a scientist take this necessarily as evidence of a single world-wide catastrophic flood.